Joby appoints Toyota Motor North America president and CEO to board

Joby Avi­a­tion yes­ter­day announced the appoint­ment of Tet­suo “Ted” Ogawa, pres­i­dent and CEO of Toy­ota Motor North Amer­i­ca to its board of direc­tors. Toy­ota is Joby’s largest exter­nal share­hold­er, hav­ing invest­ed around $400 mil­lion since 2020.

The long-stand­ing part­ner­ship between the two com­pa­nies has seen them work on the design of engi­neer­ing tools and lay­out of Joby’s pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty. In April, the com­pa­nies signed an agree­ment for Toy­ota to sup­ply key pow­er­train and actu­a­tion com­po­nents.

“Ted is join­ing our team at a crit­i­cal moment for the com­pa­ny as we roll the first air­craft off our pilot pro­duc­tion line, and look ahead to scal­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing in the months and years to come,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby.

“Toy­ota has been instru­men­tal in help­ing us reach this mile­stone, and its decades-long his­to­ry of man­u­fac­tur­ing qual­i­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and scal­a­bil­i­ty have informed the world-class man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty and process­es that Joby has built.”

Ogawa has held posi­tions includ­ing gen­er­al man­ag­er, Chi­na Divi­sion, for Toy­ota Motor Cor­po­ra­tion, and coor­di­na­tor at New Unit­ed Motor Man­u­fac­tur­ing, a joint ven­ture between Gen­er­al Motors and Toy­ota in Fre­mont, Cal­i­for­nia. He will suc­ceed Dr James Kuffn­er, CEO and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Direc­tor of Woven by Toy­ota, as the Toy­ota rep­re­sen­ta­tive on Joby’s Board.

After com­plet­ing ini­tial flight test­ing, the air­craft will be deliv­ered to Edwards Air Force Base as part of Joby’s $131M con­tract with the US Air Force. Joby has received a Spe­cial Air­wor­thi­ness Cer­tifi­cate for the first air­craft built at its Pilot Pro­duc­tion Line in Mari­na, Cal­i­for­nia. Issued by the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion, the cer­tifi­cate allows Joby to begin flight test­ing of its first pro­duc­tion pro­to­type.

In March, Michael Huer­ta, for­mer FAA admin­is­tra­tor and Delta Board Mem­ber, was appoint­ed to the Company’s Board, join­ing Reid Hoff­man, co-founder of LinkedIn and a Part­ner at Grey­lock; Aicha Evans, CEO of Zoox; Dipen­der Salu­ja, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Capri­corn Invest­ment Group; Hal­imah DeLaine Pra­do, Gen­er­al Coun­sel of Google; and Lau­ra Wright, for­mer CFO of South­west Air­lines. The board is chaired by Paul Scia­r­ra, co-founder of Pin­ter­est.

For­mer FAA Admin­is­tra­tor and Delta Board Mem­ber Michael Huer­ta joins Joby Aviation’s Board of Direc­tors